
£ifo ti)e ^C5t of beaming. 



DISCOURSE 




BEFOBE THE 



GRADUATING CLASS OF HARVARD COLLEGE, 



Delivered June IS^ 1856. 



BY 



FREDERIC D. HUNTINGTON, D.D., 

PREACHER TO THE UNITERSITT, AND PLUMMEK PROFESSOR OF CHRISTIAN MORALS. 



PRINTED BY REQUEST OF THE CLASS. 




CAMBRIDGE: 
JOHN BARTLETT, 

BOOKSELLER AND PUBLISHER TO THE UNITERSITV. 

1856. 




A 



£ife tl)e ®£st of learning. 



DISCOURSE 



BEFORE THE 



GRADUATING CLASS OF HARVARD COLLEGE, 



Delivered June 15, 1856. 



BY 



FREDERIC D. HUNTINGTON, D.D., 

PREACHER TO THE UNIVERSITY, AND PLUMMER PROFESSOR OF CHRISTIAN MORALS. 



PRINTED BY REQUEST OP THE CLASS. 



CAMBRIDGE: 
JOHN BARTLETT, 

BOOKSELLER AND PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY. 

1856. 



</SII 'Boyc 2. 



l^J^q/ 







I 



cambkidge: 
metcalf and company, printers to the university. 



NEW YORK PUBL. LIBR. 
IM £XCUANQ£, 



DISCOURSE. 



WHO IS A WISE MAN AND ENDUED WITH KNOWLEDGE AMONG YOU ? 
LET HIM SHOW OUT OF A GOOD CONVERSATION HIS WORKS WITH 
MEEKNESS OF WISDOM. — James iii. 13. 

If we remember that the term that is here ren- 
dered " conversation " bears a larger signification 
than we commonly attach to that English word, — 
meaning the whole action of life, the development of 
character, the way a man works, turns, or behaves 
himself in the world, — dvaaTpo(f)ri, — and if we re- 
member that on that term falls the main emphasis of 
the sentence, we shall get from the whole passage a 
general declaration of remarkable point, and quite 
appropriate to the special bearing of this service. 

The scope of the writer's thought, paraphrasing 
the statement a little, will be something like this : — 
You speak of knowledge. You value intellectual 
attainments. You honor wise or learned men. But 
why do you value those attainments 1 Who are your 
wise men 1 Let Christian truth tell you. The use 
of knowledge is to guide and elevate conduct. Wise 
men, or well-educated men, are those that make what 
they know illuminate and enrich what they do. The 



1 






2 1 . Jr 



2 




c ambeidge: 

METCALP AND COMPANY, PRINTERS TO THE UNIVERSITY. 



WEV7 YORK PUBL. LIBRr 
IN EXCUANQJS, 



\ 



DISCOURSE. 



WHO IS A WISE MAN AND ENDUED WITH KNOWLEDGE AMONG YOU '? 
LET HIM SHOW OUT OF A GOOD CONVERSATION HIS WORKS WITH 

MEEKNESS OF WISDOM. — James iii. 13. 

If we remember that the term that is here ren- 
dered " conversation " bears a larger signification 
than we commonly attach to that English word, — 
meaning the whole action of life, the development of 
character, the way a man works, turns, or behaves 
himself in the world, — avadTpoc^rj^ — and if we re- 
member that on that term falls the main emphasis of 
the sentence, we shall get from the whole passage a 
general declaration of remarkable point, and quite 
appropriate to the special bearing of this service. 

The scope of the writer's thought, paraphrasing 
the statement a little, will be something like this : — 
You speak of knowledge. You value intellectual 
attainments. You honor wise or learned men. But 
why do you value those attainments ? Who are your 
wise men % Let Christian truth tell you. The use 
of knowledge is to guide and elevate conduct. Wise 
men, or well-educated men, are those that make what 
they know illuminate and enrich what they do. The 



proper termination of study is a strong, simple, con- 
sistent character. The best attainments always pro- 
duce a certain humility, or reverence, — a sense of 
dependence on the great Source of Light, God, — 
what is called " the meekness of wisdom." This feel- 
ing is an inspiration to religious actions. The more 
learning a true man gets, the more widely, the more 
accurately, the more profoundly, he will see and 
think ; and so, by consequence, the more he will see 
what earnest labors there are to be done ; the more 
he will think of the claims of God and man upon 
him to turn all his resources and energies into the 
channel of a beneficent activity. His attainments 
will be worth having, just in proportion as they are 
assimilated with the vital forces of his manhood; 
and, by entering into the currents of spiritual pur- 
pose and affection, they will inspire and nourish his 
soul. If you would find out who among you is endued 
with knowledge, and who is not, you can apply this 
proof. Inquire who puts his knowledge into a " good 
conversation," — a noble or beautiful manner of liv- 
ing, — koXt) dvacrTpo(j)7], In a word, Character is the 
final cause of study. Life is the test of learning. 

I cannot help asking you to notice, in passing, how 
exactly this idea fits in with the peculiar character- 
istic of James, the Apostle that wrote this letter to 
the churches. There is always a moral interest in a 
coincidence between a man and his speech. It makes 
the man more valid, and the speech more credible, 
besides confirming and comforting our faith in human 
sincerity generally. The New Testament is full of 
these marks of genuineness. And they are nowhere 
seen in a more striking and unconscious appearance 



than in James. Pre-eminently, he was the Apostle 
of practical service. The first question about every- 
thing with him was, What will it render of living, 
human goodness '? Or, in our common phrase, How 
will it work ] Let it be opinion, or faith, or preach- 
ing, or charity. What are its fruits 1 What does it 
come to '? So, here, of knowledge. Conduct is the 
criterion of knowledge. Unless it yields a goodly 
harvest here, much study is only a weariness to the 
flesh, and a vanity of the mind. 

A moment has come when you, my friends, whom 
it is my privilege to address especially to-day, can 
hardly help putting to yourselves the question, 
whether your education, thus far, is worth what 
you have given for it. The providence of God, who 
interests himself so paternally and solemnly in every 
new step we take, and who puts a voice of his own 
into every event, though it seems the most regular, 
or natural, or incidental, is urging that question home 
upon you. The interruption of a routine that has 
lasted several years, casts us back upon individual 
choice and absolute principle. It is divinely in- 
tended to. And so the closing up of one long and 
important term of intellectual training, so costly of 
time and means and faculty and strength, presses in 
the Christian inquiry, whether what has been gained 
is equal to such pains expended. 

An unprofitable and possibly a dismal question, if 
the answer w^ere not still in your own power ! But 
it is. The great test of Life is yet to be applied. 
And the time is coming. Whether what you have 
gathered here is to lie a crude and unproductive 
mass, in sluggish brains ; or, whether it is to be per- 



6 



verted to the baleful purposes of a selfish and head- 
strong will, — all the elaborate apparatus of educa- 
tion turned into an engine of more effectual mischief; 
or whether it shall be given to the noblest objects of 
human hope, and thus consecrated to Christ ; — this is 
the threefold choice that awaits your determination, 
not to be evaded by any ingenuity, not to be forfeited 
by any neglect. It is certainly a fit time, then, to 
meditate the true and righteous uses of a Christian 
scholarship. Three easy and tempting mistakes seem 
to me to lie directly before you, — I might say before 
us all, -^ exposing all our past industry to failure. 

I. The first danger is indifference. False objects 
in life are positive destroyers ; but the absence of 
any clear object is a waster almost equally consum- 
ing, and with one order of minds even more seductive. 
It would seem as if the natural effect of a compre- 
hensive system of discipline must be to rouse the 
will and direct its aim. Why translate the tongues 
of so many tribes of men, if not to collect from them 
some completer interpretation of the riddle of our 
destiny '? Why explore the mysterious geography of 
the mind itself, and interrogate the wondrous faculty 
by which all knowledge comes, if not to gain new 
data towards the solution of the oldest and deepest 
problem, — Why was I born ] Why do I breathe 1 
Whither do I tend"? How is it possible to trace the 
moving processions of the ages, through paths seem- 
ing so trivial while they were trod, but so solemn in 
the echoes of their desertion, and not be sent back to 
watch with a wiser eye which way our own steps lead 1 
The whole contemplation of history is an incitement 
to live purposely and earnestly. It is the very dig- 



nity of science, that it reads oiF to us, not only the 
thoughts, but the plan of God, — a plan whose unity 
and method demand some reflection and some copy, 
even in natures so fantastic and wayward as ours. 
Every lesson from creation proposes a task to be 
done. Every disclosure of the Creator presents an 
end to be achieved. 

Yet I need hardly remind you how often we miss 
this practical and personal issue of the most intelli- 
gent study, — ever learning, but never coming to the 
knowledge of that simple truth ! The lives of schol- 
ars, so peculiarly solicited and stimulated to the 
straitest determination, are given over, as often per- 
haps as others, sometimes it appears oftener than any 
others, — and certainly with a more palpable and mel- 
ancholy abortiveness, — to aimless, nerveless, desultory 
chance. How the treasures rust in our hands ! The 
smooth stones out of the brook drop unused from our 
grasp. The sling hangs loose at our side. Giant 
Error walks defiant and unchallenged at the head of 
his Philistine troops. The years run on, and no 
resolute helm guides the rocking keel toward a land 
of distinct and sacred promise. We are idly busy 
with living, careless of life. Two causes encourage 
this apathy. 

One is, that the structure and habits of our in- 
dustrial commonwealth expose the recent graduate 
from college to a period of uncertainty in his employ- 
ment. It cannot be denied, I think, that at present 
there is some want of happy adjustment between the 
academic career and the public stations it precedes. 
The places of the higher and more intellectual labor 
are not organized in proportion to the mechanical 



8 



and trafficking vocations. The developments of 
modern civilization have much widened the range of 
selection, and almost bewilder the judgment. Two 
or three clean-cut professions, technically learned, 
do not, as formerly, distribute and absorb the whole 
educated force. The same professions, meantime, for 
better or for worse, cease to be technically, if not in 
any other sense, learned^ and are occupied by candi- 
dates who have rushed up to their gates by a shorter 
road. The fact, however it comes about, seems to 
stand, that an increasing number of college-bred men 
wait, with an awkward pause, after their graduation, 
undecided yet of what their " commencement " shall 
be the beginning. Unless some positive predilec- 
tion or early bias has happened to settle their choice 
for them, an interval of doubt disturbs and enfee- 
bles the steady drift and tenacity of their resolves. 
It is' a crisis of trial and peril. Some men are hur- 
ried by it into a choice that is foolish, and profanes 
the after-existence. Others are diluted by it into a 
spongy softness, and fall off into habits of literary 
generality, or sentimental imbecility. What is want- 
ed is a Christian efficiency of purpose, — a Chris- 
tian decision not to let haste spoil the material, — a 
Christian decision not to be content with vacilla- 
tion. Delay too long, and there creeps upon the soul 
a fatally satisfied unconcern. The descent is easier, 
because the goads and exactions of a systematic dis- 
cipline have just been taken off; the indolent free- 
will often finds the charming liberty to do what it 
pleases a wretched liberty to do nothing. Be guard- 
ed against this dull catastrophe. Let not the bright 
beginning slouch into a stupid sequel. What thy 



hand or thy brain findeth to do, do it with thy 
might. For he only is the wise man, and endued 
with knowledge among you, who keeps his life lively, 
and shows fruits of his study in a goodly conver- 
sation. 

Another cause of indifference to any lofty and 
religious uses of education is a subservience to the 
routine of professional tasks. "When the profession 
has been chosen and entered, it may still put on 
a yoke. Recurring drudgeries deaden enthusiasm. 
The first ardor fades off. Monotony sings its drowsy 
tune. Commonplace efforts will do for commonplace 
business ; why stretch the powers beyond their wont- 
ed mood? Mediocrity is safe and practicable; why 
spur the aspirations by a swifter measure ? Because, 
answers Christianity, they are the glory of your being. 
Because unbounded powers are insulted by arbitrary 
limits. Because the conquest of the possible into the 
actual is the keenest fascination of true courage. 
Because God never made us, and his institutions 
never nurtured us, to be sluggish grinders in the 
mill of repetition, but fellow-wrestlers with the heroes 
and apostles, — striving for the great mastery, press- 
ing toward the mark. And there is but one victory, 
but one mark. However sloth may sleep, or cow- 
ardice despair, or infidelity deny, there is nothing 
less than a practical and progressive ripening of the 
whole man for the glory of God, that can fill out the 
passion of the really " wise man endued with knowl- 
edge among you." The first sentence of Milton's 
tract on the reforming of education is an exposition 
of my text : " I am long since persuaded that, to do 
or say aught worth memory or imitation, no purpose 

2 



10 



should sooner move us than simply the love of God 

and of mankind The end of learning is to 

repair the ruins of our first parents by learning 
to know God aright, and out of that knowledge 
to be like him, — as we may the nearest be by 
possessing our souls of true virtue, which, being 
united to the heavenly grace of faith, makes up 
the highest perfection.'' And how well he insists 
on this definite and living purpose of the scholar, 
when he speaks of " that methodical course where- 
in our gentle and noble youth must proceed, by 
the steady pace of learning onward, till they have 
confirmed and solidly united the whole body of their 
perfected knowledge, like the last embattling of a 
Eoman legion " ! 

II. But beyond indifference whether learning has 
any grand object, — and sometimes, indeed, this side 
of it, — lies the hinderance of a poor self-seeking. 
Undoubtedly it is one of the most appalling proofs 
of the vigor of the selfish passions, that they survive 
as they do through all the liberalizing influence of a 
catholic culture, and resist the generous impressions 
of science, and even triumph over the charities of 
good-fellowship, in the base hunger for luxury or 
comfort. The Apostle does not say it is in a lu- 
crative conversation, or a famous conversation, or a 
comfortable conversation, that the works of the real 
wisdom are shown forth, but in a " good conver- 
sation." Nor is it in the pride, the distinction, the 
notoriety, or the emoluments of wisdom, — the of- 
fice, the salary, the applause, the furniture, — but 
in " the meekness of wisdom." It is Wisdom for her 
own pure and precious sake, — or rather for His 



11 



sake who possessed her of old, in the beginning, 
when he laid the foundations of the earth, — that he 
loves and pursues. If scholarship holds itself affront- 
ed by being degraded into the low wrangle of appe- 
tites, for precedence or gold, religion calls it sacri- 
lege. The right question, when you are laying your 
plans for the future, is not. Which will yield me the 
best living '? but, Which will yield me the best life ? 
It cannot be that you have been out in the fields 
of learning seeking jewels, to bring them in and 
lay them down as purchase-money for equipage or 
compliments. The legitimate children of Mammon, 
schooled, not, as you have been, in the ample and 
serene atmosphere of unselfish thought, but in the 
closer chambers of mercenary calculation, — trained, 
not) as you have been, in the royal company of great 
persons from antiquity downward, but in the scram- 
ble and devices of gain, — will beat you in that 
rivalry ; and they ought to. How your educated 
strength shall be devoted, should be settled by an- 
other reference than the stock-list or the tax-bill. 
All honest callings are honorable. If you carry your 
acquirements into commerce, you may enter into a 
worthy and magnanimous competition. There is 
scope there for your largest faculty, and there is 
need there of the broadest philosophy. But you 
cannot decently go to turn your talents into mer- 
chandise, to forget the communion with high exam- 
ples, to square your notions of civil affairs by tha 
self-interest of the market, to sell the nobility of 
art and letters for some rich bargain, to barter con- 
science for tariff or dividends, — to let your inde- 
pendent duty as citizens and as patriots be appointed 






12 



for you by the narrow gossip of the exchange or the 
contracts of brokers' boards. Bear into whatever 
mercantile engagements or profitable alliances you 
encounter, a spirit that is genial with the sympa- 
thies of all the peoples you have conversed with, — 
self-denying with old sacrifices, fragrant with the 
mountain air of meditation, sacred with the venera- 
tion of holy traditions. Breathe the spirit of your 
studies into the haunts of Trade. Touch the rough 
customs of shops with the grace of a genuine refine- 
ment. And do all that modesty will allow to raise 
the strifes of property into a statelier degree, by as- 
serting everywhere the supremacy of thinking man 
over his possessions, and of simple justice over all 
the policies and expediencies of the hour. Maintain 
everywhere the absolute dignity of Truth, who has 
chosen you once as her disciples and heralds, — and 
never forget, however afiluence bids for your souls, 
that you were here, set apart and dedicated as priests 
in the unsordid Temple of Learning. 

Consider, too, that there is a greediness of praise 
just as radically selfish, if not quite so carnal, as the 
lust for money. And precisely because it wears a 
more intellectual look, it is a sin that ofiers a more 
acceptable bait to cultivated men. But there is 
nothing in it of " the meekness of wisdom." The 
selfishness of vanity is at its root, and the selfishness 
of ostentation is in its branches, — and green jeal- 
ousies are canker-worms on all its leaves. He is not 
half-educated, not the wise man, nor endued with 
knowledge among you, who suborns the common 
largesses of the past into a stepping-stone to per- 
sonal renown, and prizes the light that is sent to 



13 



warm the whole race into a brotherhood, only for 
the distinctions it reveals between himself and his 
kind. Not that is the genuine scholar's temper, nor 
the goodly conversation. 

III. Thirdly, it is no business of the liberal and 
Christian scholar to become the hired servant of 
party prejudice or sectarian interests. Science is 
given and got for no such contemptible uses. Stu- 
dents are congregated in a still and separate spot, on 
neutral ground, remote as may be from all political 
and ecclesiastical chicanery, on purpose that they 
may grow and expand, aloof from the warping forces 
of controversy. But, in a social state like ours, it 
would take more than a Chinese wall, or the rules of 
monastic seclusion, to shut out even from academic 
groves the intruding conflicts of the forum and the 
convention. Before you have passed out of the hear- 
ing of the College bell, the recruiting ofEcers of state 
and church will besiege you for your pledge. Con- 
sider carefully, I pray you, before you give it to any 
of them, how^ much you give with it, — whether your 
manhood, whether your individuality, whether your 
liberty of speech, whether the sanctity of a fearless 
conviction. Here again scholarship and Christianity 
both unite to put you on your guard. There are 
little coteries enough, in art, in letters, in social opin- 
ion, in public policy, in theologic speculation, that 
will be delighted to enroll a new name on their lists. 
Their captains will electioneer for you while you are 
free, — flatter . you when you consent, — patronize 
and cajole you when you are caught, — use and pay 
you while you succumb, — abuse and torment you 
when you rebel. Can you afford that servitude'^ 



14 



Can learning afford it in your persons 1 And who, 
in all these truckling and hard-drilled times, shall be 
honest and free, if not they whose minds have been 
balanced and poised by contemplating the reasons 
of things 1 

It is not against the more open and offensive ag- 
gressions of such combined interests that these warn- 
ings are directed, so much as against devices that are 
more specious and plausible. We have committed 
ourselves, in our social experiment, to the govern- 
ment of public opinion, even more than of public 
law. Unless the original fountains of it are kept 
healthy and pure, we are in the most complicated 
and disastrous of anarchies. Already thoughtful 
men cannot look far about them, without seeing what 
beginnings of ruinous and despotic power, of mis- 
judgment, of defamation, of vituperation, are craftily 
growing up in these bigotries of our democracy. 
Truth is scarcely seen for what it is, but only for the 
image and superscription it bears, nor prized for its 
beauty, but for its currency. The few that venture 
on a practical assertion of the boasted liberality, have 
to be catechized, and menaced, and ostracized, so far 
as the puny persecutions of wordy batteries can os- 
tracize. Oppose to these degrading dictations all the 
massive resistance of your knowledge, the muscle of 
your manhood, and the sincerity of your faith. 

Faith, I say. For it is not the independence of 
self-will, not the vain ambition of peculiarity, not 
the insolent contempt of the past, or of other men, 
or of righteous authority, that I exhort you to. It 
is the honest loyalty to the one only Authority, in- 
stead of mortal counterfeits. It is the appeal from 



16 



custom to Christ, — from party and sect to the Holy 
Spirit, — from mortal majorities to God. There 
is no right religious reverence which does not fear 
the one only Master more than unpopularity or re- 
proach. What we want is that humility, growing 
ever deeper with all growing heights of attainment, 
— that penitential confession of sins, that meekness 
of wisdom, which bends with unutterable awe be- 
fore the secret voice of the Most High, before the 
open command of the Bible, and which, being turned 
" into a native and heroic valor," makes men " hate 
the cowardice of doing wrong." 

Let us ponder, then, the great claims that are laid 
on our educated men. The country has claims, — 
never more than now. We need more of that sort 
of education which stirs and fosters, from beginning 
to end, a loyal zeal for the central and dominant 
ideas that lie at the foundation of the Eepublic. 
The scholar is not well trained that has not been 
formed day -by day into a Christian patriot. Our 
universities ought all to be nurseries, not of national 
exclusiveness, or national vanity, but of a just na- 
tional honor, virtue, and devotion. They should rear 
and send forth prophets for the American Israel, — 
prophets brave and blameless, and speaking ever 
with a " Thus saith the Lord," — prophets that no 
sophistry can bewilder, no tyrant silence, no blud- 
geon terrify, no flattery blind. Out of libraries, and 
out of laboratories, and out of the forearming con- 
tests of debate, let them send forth, for each impend- 
ing struggle of Right with Wrong, thinkers and 
speakers "fraught with a universal insight, ingen- 



16 



uous and matchless men." For as said that stanch 
old English republican of two centuries ago, in 
language suiting us to-day, There is a study of poli- 
tics worthy of Christian scholars, " that they may 
not, in a dangerous fit of the commonwealth, be 
such poor, shaken, uncertain reeds, of such a totter- 
ing conscience, as many of our great counsellors 
have lately shown themselves, but steadfast pillars 
of the state." 

Universal humanity has claims. That " good con- 
versation " of the Christian scholar condescends to 
converse with the lowest oifshoot of the human 
stock. That "meekness of wisdom" stoops gladly 
to help the weakest wayfarer; to hear the story of 
wrong or weakness from the faintest or most un- 
lettered lips ; to sympathize with the wants of the 
vagrant, or the sorrows of the slave ; to bring all 
the sublime resources of culture, the magic of inven- 
tion, and the facilities of genius, to ease the bur- 
dens of penury, to open the path to the helpless, to 
pay respect and wages to unpaid toil, to inspire 
brute force with intelligence, to marshal idle men 
and women and children into ranks of self-sustain- 
ing labor. This is a worthy end for the best schol- 
arship of the age, — 

" How best to help the slender store, 
How mend the dwellings, of the poor, — 
How gain in life, as life advances, 
Valor and charity more and more." 

Above all, Christ has claims. And his claims are 
supreme. They transcend, they underlie, they en- 
compass, all beside. The Lord of souls is Lord of 
the sciences as well. Common gratitude challenges 



17 



obedience and love for Him, in whose name every 
hope of civilization moves to its fulfilment, and every 
affection of mankind realizes itself in peace. It must 
be a personal obedience, — a personal love. No 
general and cold confession, no vague and rhetorical 
loyalty, no heartless and high-sounding praises, can 
satisfy that Gospel of regeneration on which salva- 
tion depends. Penitence, trust, consecration, prayer, 
righteousness, — these will ; for God is Love, and his 
forgiveness waits. Every thought and imagination 
must be brought into captivity to the holy obedience 
of the Son of God. All knowledge that is not rooted 
and centred there vanishes away. " "Who is a wise 
man and endued with knowledge among you 1 " He 
is the believing student, the studious disciple. 

Gentlemen of the Graduating Class, our doctrine 
culminates here. 

Every considerable change in the form of our life 
is meant to suggest to us something original as to its 
spirit. The dissolving of one set of relations moves 
the question by what law new sets shall be organ- 
ized. When farewells and distance threaten manly 
friendships, what is more unavoidable than to think 
what arm shall keep the friend that is parted from, 
and whether there is not One Friendship in whose 
Eternal and Almighty clasp every human affection 
finds its safety 1 The separation of classmates opens 
spaces about each one's personality which let in 
light from above on all your plans and habits. A 
change of residence puts us to asking why we live 
at all ; how long we shall need any earthly dwelling ; 
whether we deserve any. How shall your tuition 
3 



18 



justify these years, and your future be adequate to 
the past] 

That question, like every other that an earnest ex- 
perience asks, God's Book of Life answers. 

Life is the test of Learning. Character is the cri- 
terion of knowledge. Not what a man has, but what 
he is, is the question, after all. The quality of soul 
is more than the quantity of information. Personal, 
spiritual substance is the final resultant. Have that, 
and your intellectual furnishings and attainments 
will turn, with no violent contortion, but with a 
natural tendency and harmony, — a working to- 
gether, conversation, dvaa-rpo^ij, — to the loftiest uses. 
Add faith to knowledge, and your education will be 
worth what it has cost. Your lives will honor 
and justify your preparation. Say, every morning, 
with the simple confidence of the holy child in 
the Temple, " Lord, here am I ! " and he will send 
you to noble and effectual victories. Your wisdom 
will tell to issues that are divine, and that wisdom 
the Eternal Providence will watch, because it is 
matured in the spiritual school of Him who knows 
all that is in man. 

" Lift up your eyes to the fields ; they are white 
already to harvest." With the blessing of that 
Providence, go to the field of your slow, patient work. 
That slowness of the result may be the bitterest 
element in the discipline. 

" To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, 
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, 
To the last syllable of recorded time." 

Be content to wait for Him with whom ages are 
days. 



19 



" If but this tedious battle could be fought, 
With Sparta's heroes, at one rocky pass, 
One day be spent in dying, men had sought 
The spot, and been cut down like mower's grass. 
If in the heart of nature we might strive, 
Challenge to single combat the great power. 
Welcome the conflict ! But no ; half alive. 
We skirmish with our foe long hour by hour." 

Nevertheless, — nevertheless, — in due season ye 
shall reap, if ye faint not. Go out with faith, with 
supplication. Ye shall come again in the Jubilee 
and Sabbath of the Resurrection rejoicing. And 
then, be content if it shall be with you as with the 
solemn pictured figures of the returning warriors, in 
the historical galleries of the Italian city, where the 
reverent and pious victors are seen, not in chariots, 
nor with sceptres, nor on thrones, nor with crowns 
on their heads, but kneeling, the crowns lifted in 
their hands, looking upward, and giving thanks to 
God. 



